AMD Launches “World’s Fastest” Radeon HD 6990 Graphics Card

Advanced Micro Devices has unveiled its highly-anticipated Radeon HD 6990 graphics card powered by two code-named Cayman graphics processors. The new card will be sold at a whopping $699 price-point and will offer performance higher compared to any existing solution on the market.

Being based on two Cayman (Radeon HD 6970) graphics processors, AMD Radeon HD 6990 sports 3072 stream processors, 192 texture units, 64 raster operation units and carries 4GB of GDDR5 memory. The graphics chip on the new board is clocked at 830MHz and the memory operates at 5GHz, which is a decline from 880MHz/5.50GHz frequency formula of the Radeon HD 6970. Nonetheless, the novelty sports hardware auto-acceleration feature called AUSUM (Antilles Unlocking Switch for Uber Mode), which accelerates the dual-chip card to the levels of single-chip one and increases voltages. Maximum power consumption of the novelty can be as high as 375W.

By allowing end-users to automatically boost performance of their graphics boards, AMD will avoid situation when its dual-GPU flagship will be slower compared to single-chip flagship once CrossFireX technology fails in certain games.

“Packing more raw performance than any consumer graphics card ever created, the AMD Radeon HD 6990 provides the latest for the ultimate gaming advantage. Coupled with AMD Eyefinity multi-display technology, AMD PowerTune power management and AMD HD3D, this card is so powerful it can take on even the most demanding ultra-enthusiast tasks,” said Matt Skynner, corporate vice president and general manager of GPU division at AMD.

The Cayman graphics processors is based on the latest Northern Islands DirectX 11-supporting architecture. The card supports hardware acceleration of all the possible high-definition video formats. The Radeon HD 6990 supports up to five displays using AMD Eyefinity multi-display technology, with six display support possible via DisplayPort 1.2 components available for purchase later this year. AMD HD3D technology provides a stereoscopic 3D gaming and movie experience, thanks to HDMI 1.4a support.